Appreciation in Times of Pain
The people of Israel
had a charmed existence in their life in the desert. Unlike us, their
descendants, they did not face economic downturns or long lines waiting at the
supermarket checkout counter. Their food was delivered to them daily (for the
righteous at their doorstep) and a magical well of Miriam sustained their needs
for water without bills and taxes and surcharges.
The great clouds of
honor protected them from heat and the sun and their clothing was miraculously
laundered and cleaned for them. It was the idyllic life. But apparently it
wasn’t. The rest of the Torah, including this week’s parsha, is replete with
repeated complaints about the food, the water, about everything, about life
itself.
Their memories of Egypt
become fonder and fonder and their ingratitude towards Moshe and G-d reaches
startling proportions. Moshe, the redeemer of Israel and their unquestionably
revered leader, is heard to say to G-d in this week’s parsha that he feels his
life endangered by the murmurings of dissatisfaction of the people against G-d
and him. “Soon they will stone me,” he states.
What happened to their
belief in “G-d and in Moshe, His servant?” How did it occur that they could
complain about the marvelous situation of security and freedom in which they
now found themselves? How can they proclaim that they want to return to Egypt,
the country of their oppression and persecution? These questions are very
disturbing ones and all of the great Jewish commentators to the Torah have
attempted to deal with them.
Though each of the
commentators offers a differently nuanced answer to these questions there is a
common thread that runs through all of their words and ideas. And that is that human beings are basically
dissatisfied creatures. The rabbis taught us that he who has one hundred
(million, billion, trillion?) always wishes for two hundred!
The rabbis, therefore, defined wealth in terms of personal
satisfaction and gratitude and they regretfully remarked that there are rather
few wealthy people present in our world. “Most of the world is poor,” they declaimed,
and they were not speaking of material artificially and statically arrived at
poverty lines. In fact, the bounty and ease poured unto our ancestors as
they left Egypt was meant to teach them that no amount of material well being
would ever be enough for them.
There had to be another dimension that had to enter their
lives and beings. And that was an intangible one of spirit and holy purpose, of
G-dly behavior and gratitude for life itself. It was represented by the Torah
that they would receive and accept at Mount Sinai fifty days after their
liberation from Egyptian slavery.
For fifty days their ingratitude would be forgivable for they
had no other insight into life except the always unsatisfactory material one.
After receiving the Torah at Sinai they would now be held to a higher standard
of appreciation and thankfulness.
That has been the secret of Jewish resilience and survival
throughout many a very bleak physical time. It remains valid and true for our
current time as well.
Shabat shalom.
Rabbi Berel Wein
The True Spice of Life
The layer of dew
ascended and behold – it was over the surface of the Wilderness, something
thin, exposed- thin as frost on the earth. The Children of Israel saw and said
to one another, “Is it Manna?!” for they did not know what it was. (Shemos
16:14-15)
You open your hand and
satisfy every living thing with its desire. (Tehillim 145) He gives to each and
every person what they quest. Each and every person tasted in the Manna what he
wanted… Rabbi Abba stated that he did not even have to request it with his
mouth but rather if he just thought in his heart that this is what he desires,
the taste was the taste of what he wanted! (Midrash Rabba)
That heaven-sent bread
known as Manna that the Jewish People ate for their duration in the desert
functioned like a kind of culinary Rorschach test. It tasted just like one
wanted it to. All they had to do is think of what wanted and that was the
flavor. Someone once famously asked the Chofetz Chaim how the Manna tasted if
someone did not think. Something to the effect that, “if a person does not
think then how can a thing taste?!” was his spicy response. I often wondered
what that might mean.
Years ago I went to
visit a friend on a hot summer day. After climbing to his apartment on the top
floor he invited me in and offered a cold drink. There he placed a cold can of
apple juice. I looked curiously at the Hebrew lettering studying the brand of
the drink. “Very odd” I thought as I put the word together…Somech- Feh- Reish-
Yud- Nun- Gimel, “SUFFERING?” That name will entice a drinker to happily
partake?! Then I turned the can around and there in English was the name
“SPRING”. Then I recognized my mistake and I also realized that the
difference between an experience of SUFFERING and SPRING can be a single point.
I remember vividly from
more than thirty five years ago when walking down the long driveway of the
Yeshiva one wintery evening I looked up and the sky was filled with huge
snowflakes gently gliding to earth. The Street light high above accented the
depth of this awesome scene. My visceral reaction, “OY What a huge
inconvenience this is gonna be!”
As I continued on my
way, coming in the other direction was a young fellow from South Africa, Ben
Tzion. He had never seen a single snowflake in his lifetime, till now. He was
marching with glee, looking up at the same street light and shouting with
radical awe, “MANNA from HEAVEN, MANNA from HEAVEN!”
As we passed each other
it occurred to me how snow had lost its innocence with me over time and how
darkened my attitude had become. We were both responding to the exact same
phenomenon and having completely different experiences.
The son of an old
friend who is learning in a nearby Yeshiva came to our house recently on a
Shabbos when plenty of snow fell. When I drove him home after Shabbos he was
busy telling me how amazing it is that these fragile and individual snowflakes
when added together created such a huge effect.
We spoke about how
great accomplishments in learning can be achieved with small and steady
steps. I told him about the Penny Harvest we are having in Yeshiva and
the statement from the sages, “Each and every penny adds up to a great sum!”
There is so much to
learn from snow. I was thinking this morning that King David
writes, “It is He Who gives snow like fleece (a sheep’s wool coat) and He
scatters frost like ashes” (Tehillim 147) HASHEM
will only make it so cold to the degree that the wool coat of the sheep can
sustain and protect him protect him from the cold. So too HASHEM gives us challenges in life only to the extent that we
can endure them and not more.
King David also writes,
“Taste and See HASHEM is good!” (Tehillim 34) Maybe it means that a person
could either taste or see that HASHEM is good. Maybe “taste”- Taamu can mean to
reason- contemplate and if one invests thought they can then see HASHEM is
good! We joke all the time in our house, “Whoever invented (for example)
dates or garlic or cantaloupe or bee honey knew what they were doing!” Tasting
HASHEM changes the way we experience everything in life and is it not the
true spice of life!
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